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    Perfect Family
    Perfect Family
    Perfect Family
    Audiobook9 hours

    Perfect Family

    Written by Pam Lewis

    Narrated by Richard Poe

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From the acclaimed author of Speak Softly, She Can Hear, a literary page-turner about a proper New England family and the dark secrets that undo them. Pony Carteret -- the lovely headstrong youngest member of the Carteret family -- has always been a strong swimmer. So when she is discovered drowned at the family's summer home on Lake Aral, Vermont, her red hair tangled in an anchor chain and her baby abandoned on shore, her family is stunned by disbelief. As the police conduct their investigation, Jasper Carteret, the patriarch, calls an urgent family meeting. Had any of her siblings known that Pony would be at the house that day? Was she having personal problems, was she depressed? Had she ever revealed the true identity of her baby's father? Neither sister -- Tinker, the family caretaker, nor Mira, the moody, thoughtful one -- has any information, and ultimately the police rule the drowning an accident. But William Carteret, Pony's older brother, can't accept the explanation that his favorite sister's death was an accident. Determined to uncover the truth, he eventually learns the disturbing fact that a stranger had been present at the house the evening Pony died. Who was this man, what was he doing at the house, and why hasn't he stepped forward? As William digs deeper, his investigations quickly lead him to a new and more daunting series of questions, not only about the mysteries in Pony's life but also about the shadowy details of his deceased mother's past and even his own. Before long, he has opened a Pandora's box of family secrets, including one dangerous fact his mother has kept hidden for a generation. Pam Lewis's Perfect Family is a masterful, atmospheric tale about the ways in which family secrets, no matter how long they're buried, can wield their tremendous power.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 9, 2008
    ISBN9781436133135
    Perfect Family
    Author

    Pam Lewis

    Pam Lewis lives in rural Connecticut with her husband, Rob Funk. Since 1991, she has worked as a freelance writer of business and marketing communications. She is the author of the novels Perfect Family and Speak Softly, She Can Hear and her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and various literary magazines.

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    Reviews for Perfect Family

    3.5/5

    63 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Whenever the title of a book contains the word “perfect” you can be sure that the author intends it ironically. Thus, the Carterets, the Perfect Family of the title in Pam Lewis’s literary thriller, are, not surprisingly, far from perfect. The widowed patriarch of the well-off New England clan, Jasper Carteret, has not been forthcoming with his children, and before the action wraps up all the secrets he’s harbored for many years on behalf of his late wife Olivia lay revealed. The complex plot pivots around a single tragic event: the family’s youngest daughter, Pony, drowns at the family's summer home on Lake Aral, Vermont. However, her siblings (sisters Tinker and Mira and brother William) are not convinced that Pony, known for her strong swimming skills, died accidentally in the water due to carelessness or as the result of a drunken misadventure, especially not with her baby Andrew in a playpen on the front lawn of the house. But if it was not an accident, then what happened? Pam Lewis provides the answer to this question through a skilful layering process, revealing small but telling clues one after another, allowing the reader to assemble an intricate puzzle one troubling piece at a time. Lewis is a patient writer who knows how to set a scene. Her descriptions of the natural world are often startlingly vivid and evocative. She lavishes much attention on her characters, especially the Carteret sisters, describing their clothes and hair, angsts and mannerisms in close detail. By contrast, the male characters remain shadowy. The ending is somewhat predictable, but the chapters leading up to it are a joy to read. Perfect Family comes across as a character-based novel that, with variable degrees of success, incorporates elements of genre fiction to generate suspense. It is also an ambitious and sophisticated piece of writing.
    • 3/5
      I felt that the book was very predictable. I had figured out the entire plot and how the book would end by about the third chapter. Although the book changed narrators often, that was not enough to bring enough depth to the book. I also didn't feel like the author gave enough background information on Pony so there was a disconnect with her character, especially since she died so early in the book. I also felt like the author could not decide if she wanted William to be a good guy or bad guy when she was writing the book so it is hard to get a good read on that character as well. I did like how the author wrote the family as a not so perfect, perfect family. The family ties were tight yet there were total misconceptions by family members which you find so often in families. Overall, the book is an easy read and not too bad as long as you are not expecting too much from it. Although predictable, the book was just interesting enough to hold my interest until the end.
    • 4/5
      Pretty predictable but still an enjoyable, quick read.
    • 4/5
      This book was very engaging and pulled me in right from the start. What I didn't like about it was I knew the outcome of the mystery right from the beginning of the book. Maybe the story wasn't meant to be a true mystery? A good read. I would recommend it.
    • 2/5
      A who done-it mystery that really is more about how the family that had everything, that seemed perfect to the outsider’s eye was really self destructive. Although there is a legal guilty party to the crime, the real culprit is the family who lives in their expected roles and never really communicates with each other or even really know each other.
    • 4/5
      I enjoy books where the characters are not perfect - yet they have some redeeming qualities. This book is masterful at that. Lewis takes what to most people would seem to be the perfect family - rich, old-money, beautiful - as exposes the secrets that show their numerous flaws. And secrets is a key component of this novel. Family secrets held for many years finally find their way to the surface with devastating results. Along the way we search along with the the characters for the answer to the age-old question of what exactly makes a family. This book was engaging to the last page.